In what can be seen as a major countrywide crackdown on mortgage fraud, the US Department of Justice revealed on Thursday that nearly 500 people have been arrested by federal authorities since March.

Terming the arrests as the biggest combined enforcement effort for tackling mortgage fraud, US Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that as many as 1,215 criminal defendants had been netted in cases that exposed losses to the tune of over $2.3 billion.

The mortgage fraud, which saw the involvement of mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and attorneys, supposedly contributed to the banking crisis in the country as well as a flood of foreclosures.

Going by the information forwarded by federal officials, Las Vegas was one of the key centers of the mortgage scams that inflated home prices before the housing market bubble ultimately burst.

After having interviewed several so-called “straw buyers” who had been tempted into buying homes by devious real estate agents, brokers and loan officers, a Las Vegas FBI agent Scott Hunter said that the buyers were told: ‘Don't let your good credit go to waste. You can purchase these properties. This is how you acquire wealth.’

Elaborating further, Hunter said that “when the party stopped”, the brokers, real estate agents, and loan officers were apparently “not able to keep inflating the prices on these houses, the whole thing collapsed.”